This invention relates to a revolving loading platform and in particular to a platform that operates in combination with an endless track conveyer to transport vehicles against the revolving platform for convenient loading.
The field of revolving loading platforms was rapidly developed during the advance of rail transportation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Revolving loading platforms were proposed for self-propelled or cable operated trains. In general the cars of the trains were mechanically linked to the revolving platform. Because of the size of passenger trains, the revolving loading platform was a complex engineering endeavor and somewhat impractical.
However, when applied to the smaller scale mechanical ride systems of a modern amusement park, many of the principles and concepts devised for passenger trains are feasible and can be incorporated into a small limited passenger terminal. For example, the amusement ride rail system of Bacon, U.S. Pat. No. 3,865,041, utilizes a rotating platform with a deformable peripheral bumper that frictionally engages the side of a passenger vehicle with wheels that engage a stationary arcuate rail to urge or maintain the vehicle against the platform bumper. While suitable for some type of vehicles the complex rail system of Bacon requires special engagement means on the vehicles which may interfere with the preferred means of the conveyance of the vehicle during the ride sequence. For example the floating boats of Bacon incongruously include wheels. Further, the loading system proposed by Bacon is not suitable for certain varieties and configurations of vehicles such as circular, free-floating rafts.